Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download, original hand-written lyrics to a Jutze of your choice (subject to availability; these are the lyrics written during the song writing process, each sheet is unique; some songs had no written lyrics, some were lost) (50$?)

Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download, plus I write and record a 52-second song about a topic of your choice (restrictions apply) (60$?)

Depending on the production, I might also add some sort making of footage, maybe for free, maybe via link in the CD, maybe a separate DVD (including some live songs?)

Much like university websites, band websites suck. It is just too hard to archive all news items and to compile a complete list of concerts and releases. There have been some promising sites but one by one they got sacked. A lack of updates would have been bad. Still, every band homepage I’ve ever cherished has been cut down during the past 13 years. There might be a couple of artists I’m not really a fan of who still have a proper web presense. And there are, of course, some fan sites that provide all the info. (That’s what I attempt to do on anglagard.net.) Most offical band pages, however, have simply been replaced by shallow marketing schemes. New album out soon! Winter tour dates. And only then did they stop the updates. It used to make me angry. Now it only makes me sad, because I still don’t see why the old stuff has to go as soon as a new album is coming out. Our rather, a new social media campaign manager is on board.

Here’s a short list of blogs featuring statistical content. It’s basically the bookmarks I keep in my browser under “funny, thoughtful, helpful, interesting”. I enjoy reading them even when I’m not looking for a particular solution or inspiration.

As you might defer from the administrative details of this homepage I am a costumer of 1&1 (which is a member of united internet). Yesterday evening, they upgraded their webmailer. The first odd thing is that it’s the second upgrade while I’m using it; still, they call it Webmailer 2.0. Similar logic was probably applied while creating the new, allegedly improved webmail interface. In a vain attempt to turn it into a web-based MS Outlook, they managed to slow it down. The new layout clutters the screen with windows, leaving only tiny frames for the actual emails when you’re using a somewhat small screen resolution. (800×600 in my case.) Of course, I didn’t expect them to make the webmailer better. Of course, I wrote them a message. Of course, they responded with a form email. Surprisingly, it contained useful information, i.e., it’s still possible to switch your accounts back to the old webmailer via the admin configuration; a fact that could have been included in the actual welcome mail. Of course, I proceeded to switch back. A feedback form appeared half way through. So I wrote the following message. (I don’t know why I wrote all this in English whereas the feedback is naturally in German. Yet another of life’s mysteries.) It’s just one example of what in German is called “Verschlimmbesserung” (making things worse while trying to improve them); I could write similar things about most message boards, MS Office 2007 and even WordPress.

The election poster announces: “The chancellor is coming” and someone added the line: “and Everybody goes like: ‘Yeaahh!'” The graffiti statement alone is funny and subversive in its simplicity. (That’s at least what I think.) Soon, the picture spread through the internet, eliciting laughter and joy among many who are unhappy with Angela Merkel‘s policy. Eventually, the idea was born to have a flash mob calling “Yeaahh!” after each sentence of Merkel’s speech at the rally that was announced on the poster. (NB: Bundestag elections will be held in Germany next Sunday.) And sure enough, a group of people gathered and exclaimed “Yeaahh!” passionately after each sentence of Chancellor Merkel’s speech. The slogan written on the poster might need the German language to function properly. But the effect of unconditional, euphoric affirmation after each and every sentence is a great subversive way to underline the dullness of both the speaker and the content of the speech. Naturally, Merkel went through with her speech. Footage of the event can be found on YouTube.

P.S.: Funnily, the word “alle” should begin with a lowercase letter. I know I’m nitpicking, but maybe this tells you something about the investments the future government should make to provide better education.

Category: Internet, Life |
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Twitter is the perfect way for celebrities to get tabloid reporters and paparazzi to leave them alone. They can cut out the middlemen and broadcast to all their fans about how runny their oatmeal was this morning. (Mark Gordon)